A lab scope is not as complicated as it sounds; it shows an electrical occurrence digitally. The cathode ray tube was the first scope in the early years and it made the mechanics, they did not call them techs then, job a lot easier. It would show a defective spark plug or wire among other things. After some time and experience there were many problems you would discover when using the scope. They came with some accessories that were also helpful a vacuum pump among them. I used to have an early 50 Sun scope and I wish I had kept it but you have to draw the line somewhere I already have too much junk and this machine was huge compared to today’s.The next generation digitally converted the trace and made it easier to read. This can create some problems as it tended to miss some of the small glitches, there are ways to capture glitches but I still prefer the live trace. They also had many add ons like vacuum transducers and O2 sensor modulators. I have an old tube type scope only in my garage I use on occasion; starting a new tech out with this makes an excellent teaching tool. The lab scope is the one in general use today it is tiny by yesterdays standards and can do almost anything as it has many add ons. Also there are several lab scopes built into scanners and test modules made by Snap-On and Mac among others. Modis is among them and it performs exceptionally well but it is almost too easy to use and techs start to depend on and lose sight of diagnostic procedures. They have to remember to check the basics first as this will solve many problems. I have gathered the info necessary to call a help line and on many occasions have solved the problem. Remember KISS and I don’t mean Gene Simmons, keep it simple stupid.